Eden V14 No2 2011

Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Vol. 14 No. 2 • Spring 2011 Beatrix Farrand in Southern California, 1927−1941 Ann Scheid eatrix Farrand moved to Southern California in 1927, 1924, and in 1926 he accepted the ―alluring opportunity‖3 B when her husband, Max Farrand, became the first to head the newly established Huntington Library in San director of the Huntington Library in San Marino. Born Marino. Beatrix Jones in 1872 to one of New York‘s leading fami- Max Farrand had been the choice of George Ellery lies, she showed an early interest in nature and the out-of- Hale, famous astronomer and adviser to Henry Huntington. doors. Beatrix became the protégée of Charles Sprague Probably Hale had also been behind the invitation to Max Sargent, first director of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, in the previous year to spend time at the California Insti- with whom she began serious study in 1893. Her studies tute of Technology (Caltech).4 Hale‘s vision for the new were supplemented by extensive European travel, visiting library as a world-class research institution required an gardens in England, France, Italy, and even Algiers. She eminent scholar at its head to organize the scholarly pro- was also no doubt influenced by her aunt, Edith Wharton, gram and to attract leading scholars to carry out research in whose book Italian Villas and Their Gardens (1903) pro- the rich collection of rare books and manuscripts assem- moted the fundamentals of formal garden design— bled by Huntington. fundamentals that Beatrix ap- As the former head of plied in her own work. She set Yale‘s history department up her office in her family home and established scholar of on East 11th Street in New York Constitutional history, Max City in 1896, and by 1899, Farrand was clearly an out- helped by her family‘s social standing choice for the di- connections, Beatrix Jones was rector‘s position.5 Beatrix‘s established enough to become role was less clear. In his the only woman among the 11 offer of the position to Max, founders of the American Soci- Hale wrote: ―Please tell ety of Landscape Architects Mrs. Farrand that I enjoyed (ASLA).1 reading her interesting de- Beatrix Jones met Max Far- scription of the planting rand, Princeton graduate and scheme for Yale, and hope professor of history at Yale, over we can find a way to profit dinner at the president‘s house at here by her admirable meth- Princeton, where Farrand had ods.‖6 been asked to advise about the Although the Farrands campus plan.2 Married in lived in California for nearly 1913—she 41 and he 44—they 14 years, Beatrix Farrand settled in New Haven, where did relatively little work Max had taught history since here. This may be attributed 1908. Impatient to spend more to various factors. The Far- time doing research and writing, Max and Beatrix Farrand at the Director’s House, rands divided their time Max resigned his post at Yale in Huntington Library, 1930s. between San Marino and Courtesy Bar Harbor Historical Society, Bar Harbor, Maine. (Continued on next page.) Beatrix Farrand in Southern California (continued) Reef Point, their summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine. Al- fountain and wall at the foot of the garden, and an allée of though she spent considerable time in San Marino, Beatrix oak trees leading to the estate grounds―indicate her predi- continued her practice in the East and therefore traveled lections. The fragments of her other jobs, at Caltech, Hale back and forth, spending months working on projects on Solar Lab, and especially Occidental College, leave us the East Coast and in Chicago. She did have a studio built wishing that she had been able to do more. Her inability in San Marino, linked by a pergola to the Director‘s House to bring her talents to bear on the land right outside her on the Huntington grounds, and she corresponded with front door must have been a continuous source of inner local clients on stationery letterhead from 1151 Oxford frustration to her. Road, San Marino. Inevitably, though, her months away Garden for George Ellery Hale and the Hale Solar made it difficult to establish a full-time practice locally; Laboratory (Building, 1924; Garden, 1928) she never had an office of draftsmen and support personnel Farrand‘s first garden in Southern California was for Dr. in California. In the case of Occidental College, her big- George Ellery Hale, who had commissioned Pasadena ar- gest Southern California job, she relied on the office of chitects Johnson, Kaufmann & Coate to design a solar ob- architects Myron Hunt and H.C. Chambers to produce the servatory for his retirement years. Hale, renowned scientist drawings, which she then approved before authorizing the and Renaissance man, had traveled through Europe as a work. young man with architect and city planner Daniel Burn- Yet Farrand‘s reputation as one of the leading land- ham, a family friend and architect of the Hale family home scape architects of her day (although she styled herself in Chicago. As chairman of the Astronomy section of the ―Landscape Gardener‖) ought to have attracted the sort of 1893 Chicago World‘s Fair, Hale had also worked with prestigious clientele that she enjoyed in the East and Mid- Burnham directly. Hale had come to Pasadena in 1904 to west. Her work at Yale University, University of Chicago, establish an observatory on Mt. Wilson, a site favored by and Princeton established her as one of the leading design- the clear and still air that was ideal for astronomical obser- ers of college campuses, and the list of her private clients, vations. Envisioning a scientific institution on the West headed by such New York names as Rockefeller, J.P. Mor- Coast to rival his alma mater, Massachusetts Institute of gan, Pratt, and Harkness, was illustrious. Perhaps indeed it Technology (MIT), Hale brought leading researchers in was forbidding, since the elite of Pasadena came primarily chemistry, physics, and biology to Pasadena‘s Throop In- from Midwestern industrial cities: Cleveland, Cincinnati, stitute, transforming it into the California Institute of Tech- Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City. nology (later to be more familiarly known as Caltech). Beatrix Farrand‘s position at the Huntington, one of Hale gained the confidence of Henry Huntington, persuad- the great estate gardens of the region, was clear from the ing him to leave his estate, library, and art collections for beginning. Her reputation as a landscape architect and her research and public benefit. He also headed a civic effort to position as the wife of the Director ought to have given her create a city plan for Pasadena that produced Pasadena‘s the opportunity to work on the design of the estate. How- nationally recognized Civic Center. ever, it was impossible to displace the longtime head of the Located on the Huntington ranch just north of the pre- gardens, William Hertrich, who, together with Henry sent Huntington grounds, Hale‘s property occupied an L- Huntington, had developed the estate from its beginnings shaped lot next to a large reservoir that served the estate. in 1905. Hertrich maintained strict control of the grounds. Beatrix Farrand began working on the plan for the garden Max Farrand noted in a 1929 letter: ―As conditions are in early 1928. In a letter to Hale, she explained her busi- now, even I have to make special arrangements to enter the ness arrangement for implementing the design. There property any time before 9 o‘clock or to remain after 4:30 would be no charge for her time, but she would charge for or to come on a Sunday except during the exhibition hours her expenses, such as typing, blueprints, tracings, photo- 7 two Sundays each month.‖ graphs, telephone, travel, etc. She suggested that plants be Hertrich was a plantsman, not a garden designer, so it purchased through her, since she could obtain a profes- is interesting to speculate how Beatrix Farrand might have sional discount from nurseries. Her invoice for the six- designed and developed the magnificent site, relating the month period January−June 1928 shows four site visits, grounds to the architecture, creating more focused axes consultations with contractors and with ―Miss Bashford,‖ and spaces, and easing the visitor‘s progress through the referring to Katherine Bashford, well-known local land- 8 gardens, which were opened to the public in 1927. scape architect. Total charge was $105.9 Farrand‘s small touches around the Director‘s Farrand‘s work for Hale was colored by her and her House―a terrace at the rear of the house, formal planting husband‘s close personal friendship with Hale and his beds beside the studio she had built for her work, a wife, Evelina. Correspondence reveals that Beatrix gave ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2 Eden: Journal of the California Garden & Landscape History Society Vol. 14 No. 2 • Spring 2011 Beatrix Farrand in Southern California (continued) Farrand’s plan for the grounds centers on the dome of the observatory. The top (south) elevation shows orange trees marking the auto court and the driveway to the street. The elevation on the right (west elevation) shows the cypress trees screening the south garden from the street and neighboring properties. Courtesy Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley. Hale a copy of her aunt Edith Wharton‘s book on Italian dome. The sketch and information in the correspondence gardens and villas; Hale loaned her a book by Edward in the Caltech Archives indicate an Italian cypress hedge Lear; Hale sent her a book while she was recuperating outlining the south garden (now destroyed).12 Her garden from a illness; Beatrix reported on her visit with Henry design originally called for a long reflecting pool, later Breasted, Egyptologist at the University of Chicago and changed to a flagged walk with tiled steps and provision Hale‘s close friend.10 At Evelina‘s behest, Beatrix ap- for a runnel down the center.

Load more